11/27/2023
Do we think that by withdrawing from the world, by separating ourselves, that we will become more pious and that this will help us consecrate ourselves by removing all temptation? Well this is a false hope, and if we look at Jesus we understand that He inserted Himself fully into the world. He didn’t run from it, no, He overcame it.
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."”
John 16:33 ESV
By living in the world we are placing ourselves where we can reach the greatest number of lost souls, and can influence them by delivering and living out the gospel of Jesus. To withdraw into our churches and enclaves, and shutting the doors, we are saving no one, and are keeping ourselves from realizing the true power of Christ in the world.
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
Galatians 6:14 KJV
We are crucified to the world... its power over us is dead. It isn’t that we look upon the world as being a place where we aren’t to go, but rather, that it is a place where we rule spiritually. The world is a place that our faith in Jesus Christ has given us dominion, and we are to enjoy it, and set out into it as lifesavers to the lost and drowning. We are the lifeline that God has cast into the world. Jesus prayed for us in this regard...
“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
John 17:15-19 ESV
Oswald Chambers wrote of the fallacy of sequestering ourselves from the world, and he speaks of Jesus remaining consecrated, even among those who were full of sin…
“Our Lord was not a recluse nor an ascetic, He did not cut Himself off from society, but He was inwardly disconnected all the time. He was not aloof, but lived in another world. He was so much in the ordinary world that the religious people of His day called Him a glutton and a wine-bibber. Our Lord never allowed anything to interfere with His consecration of spiritual energy.” - Oswald Chambers
Jesus didn’t fear sin, and He didn’t hide from it... He recognized his separation spiritually, not physically, and loved people enough to go after them, and save them from their sins. If we are fearful, and reluctant to jump into the water and swim the lifeline of the gospel to those who are drowning then we have one of two problems... we either don’t love them as we should, or we haven’t realized the power of Jesus over the sin that is in the world. It all boils down to these two things. So, do we love our neighbor, and do we trust in God? These two strengths are recognized fully once we realize the dominion of Jesus over sin.
Loving one another doesn’t mean we love the sin they contain, but rather that we love them in spite of it, and desire to help them free themselves from it. If your child is making a fool of himself in public, wouldn’t you love him enough to pull him aside and instruct him on proper behavior? Loving doesn’t mean we ignore, but that we find a way to help.
Trusting in God, and recognizing that Jesus has conquered sin and death; that He has achieved dominion over these things, and given this gift to us, is what allows us to confidently go into the waters of the world and pull those who are floundering out of it... not physically, but spiritually.
Jesus didn’t send those he redeemed directly to heaven, but sent them back into the world with the simple instruction “go and sin no more.” The world is a wonderful and amazing place when we are living righteously in it; after all, it was man who tainted it with his sin, but Jesus who has redeemed us from it. Today let’s help our neighbors, and not fear the world that God lovingly provided us.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:16-17
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the wonderful world you have placed me in, and for the neighbors that’s you have given me. I pray Father that you give me enough love that I will see the sin in many of them, and go to their rescue with your Holy Word, and the Gospel Story of Jesus Christ. Build in me an unwavering trust in you, and confidence in the total defeat of sin that Jesus provided me, so that I can venture into the furthest places of the world, and into the deepest recesses of it to reclaim souls for your kingdom. Make me courageous Father, and remove the temptation to cower in my fortress of faith while abandoning those who need me to come for them. Give me confidence to sit and dine in the homes of the lost, and to bring them to your table. Help me to resist the sin they wallow in, and speak to them of the cleansing water of salvation. Merciful God, let me shine with the glow of your grace, and reflect your light into the darkest places; let me shed the light of your truth on sin as it hides there, and brighten your world once more. So I pray today that you give me the spirit of someone who ventures, and send me out to deliver your message of love and life to those who are dead and dying in the world. Let me live my life in the beauty of this world you have created, and allow me to help you cleanse it of the sin that has sullied it. Use me Father, and in this I will praise your name, and lift you up before all men! Holy, Holy, Holy, art thou my God Almighty!
Rich Forbes